TikTok Search Rivals Google Among Gen Z 🤺 Google Grows Stake In Retail Media Advertising 🪴 Inside The Empower-Ocean Merger 🤝

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TikTok Says Its Search Engine Usage Rivals Google Among Gen Z [2 min read]

TikTok's search usage is rapidly catching up to Google among Gen Z users, with 86% using TikTok Search weekly compared to 90% using Google Search, representing a much smaller gap than exists among Millennials. Rather than replacing Google entirely, TikTok has established dominance in specific visual categories like fashion, beauty, cooking, and DIY projects where video content provides more value than traditional text results. This shift is creating a fragmented search landscape where different platforms serve different needs—ChatGPT for complex queries, TikTok for visual searches, and Google for general use—essentially returning to the 1990s model of consulting multiple search engines.

Google Grows Stake In Retail Media Advertising With Criteo Partnership [2 min read]

Google teamed up with Criteo to get into retail media advertising, which is where ads appear on retailer websites like sponsored products and search results. This partnership helps Google compete with Amazon, which currently dominates this type of advertising and made $15.7 billion from ads in just one quarter. The deal gives retailers access to more advertisers through Google's massive Search Ads 360 platform, while helping Google enter a fast-growing market worth over $62 billion that's expected to make up about 20% of all digital advertising spending by 2027.

Inside The Empower-Ocean Merger That Formed A $1.5B Indie Media Agency [3 min read]

The merger aims to offer marketers faster decision-making and more transparency compared to traditional holding companies that prioritize their own financial interests. They say this gives marketers a better alternative to big holding companies, which they claim focus more on their own profits than helping clients. The two agencies will work together but keep their separate identities and operations.

Claude Can Now Create And Edit Files [2 min read]

Claude can now create actual downloadable files including Excel spreadsheets, documents, PowerPoint presentations, and PDFs directly within the platform, transforming conversations into tangible outputs instead of just text responses. This capability works through a private computer environment where Claude can write code and run programs, allowing it to move from being an advisor to an active collaborator that handles technical implementation while users provide context and strategy. The feature is currently available as a preview for Max, Team, and Enterprise users with Pro users gaining access soon, and can be enabled in experimental settings to tackle everything from simple data cleaning to complex financial modeling projects.

AI Use At Large Companies Is In Decline, Census Bureau Says [2 min read]

AI adoption among large U.S. companies has declined from 14% to 12% between June and September 2025, representing the largest drop-off since the Census Bureau began tracking AI usage in 2023. Smaller companies showed slight increases. This decline follows years of rapid growth that saw adoption rates climb from 3.7% in September 2023 to over 9% earlier in 2025, marking a significant shift after steady corporate growth since ChatGPT's 2022 launch. The declining usage coincides with MIT research showing that most corporate AI pilot programs have failed to produce material benefits, suggesting AI may be more of a "trendy bauble" than a vital tool and potentially lending credence to concerns about an AI industry bubble.

What Is Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) [11 min read]

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is a new strategy to optimize content for AI-powered search platforms like Google's AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity, aiming to get content cited or featured within AI-generated responses rather than traditional search rankings. Success requires specific techniques including direct question answering, structured content with bullet points, strong E-E-A-T signals, and building brand authority through research citations and consistent positioning, since ranking well in traditional search doesn't guarantee AI visibility. GEO performance must be measured differently than SEO by focusing on AI Overview appearances, referral traffic from AI platforms, conversions from AI sources, and brand sentiment accuracy across generative engines rather than tracking keyword rankings and SERP positions.

3 Out-of-the-Box PPC Targeting Strategies That Help You Drive Better Results [7 min read]

The first strategy targets how your product is used, like advertising project management software to people searching for "team collaboration tools" instead of just "project management software." The second strategy targets problems your product solves, such as promoting meal kits to people searching for "save time grocery shopping" rather than just "meal delivery." The third strategy targets alternatives your product can replace, like positioning a fitness app as a "gym membership alternative" or "personal trainer replacement" to capture people looking for those solutions.

Signs Of Life In Unicorn-Land [7 min read]

Several major unicorn companies are showing strong financial performance with companies like Databricks reaching $100+ billion valuation and $4 billion ARR, Supabase potentially raising at $5 billion valuation, and ElevenLabs achieving $6.6 billion valuation with $200+ million ARR, demonstrating rapid revenue growth among top performers. However, the unicorn landscape is heavily divided since SVB data shows 28% of unicorns aren't growing, 79% are unprofitable, and 75% have annual revenue of $300 million or less, indicating many billion-dollar valuations may not be justified. Meanwhile, there's notable activity in public market preparations with companies like Netskope moving toward IPOs, and European founders are pushing for "28th regime" regulatory framework to create unified legal structures that would help EU startups compete more effectively with US companies.

TechCrunch Disrupt 2025: Full Agenda Reveal For Brand-New Going Public Stage [4 min read]

TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 is introducing a new "Going Public Stage" focused on company scaling and IPO preparation, featuring sessions that cover the entire founder journey from early traction to going public with topics like staying private longer, preparing for exits, and navigating public market transitions. The lineup includes high-profile speakers like Eric Yuan (Zoom CEO), David George (Andreessen Horowitz), and other industry leaders who will share insights on scaling companies, post-breakout success, AI's impact on go-to-market strategies, and building lasting companies. The conference takes place October 27-29, 2025 in San Francisco as part of TechCrunch's 20th anniversary celebration.

The Next Generation Of Creativity [9 min read]

Gen Z has developed a new creative aesthetic called "Creative Maximalism" characterized by audio/visual complexity, narrative co-creation, internet-referential content, and global cultural influences, fundamentally differing from traditional media as this generation grew up in a post-YouTube, post-Minecraft, post-"Gangnam Style" world. Traditional media is losing relevance among Gen Z, who spend 26% less time watching TV and movies while preferring creator-driven content, with 66% believing their generation significantly impacts online discourse and 34% having contributed to content creation in the past year. Creative Maximalism is becoming mainstream as major brands like Nutter Butter and organizations like the NFL adopt this aesthetic while Hollywood scouts YouTube franchises, suggesting this represents a foundational shift in culture creation that will likely be accelerated by generative AI adoption.

The Future Of Remarketing? Microsoft Bets On Impressions, Not Clicks [7 min read]

Microsoft Advertising's impression-based remarketing allows advertisers to build audiences based solely on ad visibility without requiring clicks or website visits, creating remarketing lists from users who have simply seen ads on Bing, Copilot, or other Microsoft properties. This approach addresses major industry challenges including privacy restrictions, cookie deprecation, and AI-powered search behavior changes that reduce traditional click-based tracking effectiveness, providing a more resilient method that works in a "clickless" future where users get answers without clicking links. Success requires strategic implementation with tailored messaging for different audience stages and personas, creating different creative for cold, warm, and hot audiences while distinguishing between decision-makers and influencers, and budgeting for sufficient impression volume to reach performance significance.

Marketing Channels: The different platforms and methods used to reach and communicate with your target audience. These include both digital and traditional paths to reach customers. Marketing channels work together to create a complete communication strategy.

Example: A fashion brand uses a mix of Instagram posts, email newsletters, and in-store displays to reach their customers across different touchpoints.

Smart Bidding: An automated bidding system that uses machine learning to optimize ad bids in real-time. It adjusts bids based on the likelihood of achieving desired marketing outcomes. Smart bidding helps maximize advertising results while saving time on manual adjustments.

Example: A retail website uses smart bidding in Google Ads to automatically adjust their bids based on which products are most likely to sell at different times of day.

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